Publishing house of contemporary classical music

“Donemus is courageous and committed in the way it actively promotes new music…. While some other countries have equivalent organizations, I am not aware of any that is so proactive. Donemus sets a standard that others should follow.”
(Stephen Baggaley, Brisbane)

News

Donemus Publishing has finished its 4th year after the restart. Sales, rentals, licenses and concerts have all increased slowly but steadily over last few years. We’re happy and honored that the music of our composers is so present in the musical life in many countries….

Our sales and rentals reached musicians in 50 countries. Last year music was sold from more than 70% of our composers. And orders contained the complete range of the most early compositions to the latest additions.

The royalties we pay to our composers has nearly tripled compared to the first year. We thank all our composers for their trust in our team. Last year Giel Vleggaar, Julia Juraschewski and Heather Pinkham have joined our team.

The new year has many great projects ahead. Operas, ballet-performances, many world premieres. Donemus Publishing has signed a contract with neoScores® and an addendum to our contract with the Digital Score Library of Alexander Street Press. And a few more exciting projects are in the pipeline!

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, combined with the musicians of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, will join forces to perform the world premiere of Eruption, by Dutch-Canadian composer Edward Top, on January 24th at the NAC Southam Hall in Ottawa, Canada. The work was commissioned by the TSO/TSYO, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage, for the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in 2017…

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, combined with the musicians of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, will join forces to perform the world premiere of Eruption, by Dutch-Canadian composer Edward Top, on January 24th at the NAC Southam Hall in Ottawa, Canada. The work was commissioned by the TSO/TSYO, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage, for the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in 2017. Two more performances will follow, at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, and the Roy Thomson Hall, in the Canadian cities of Montréal and Toronto, respectively. All three performances will be conducted by Toronto-born TSO Music Director, Peter Oundjian.

Top says of his composition: “This piece in itself is an eruption, a celebration of the intense outbreak of youthful vigor, capturing a tour de force of speed that does not diminish for the entire duration. It is the raw and unrestrained crest of musical heights that is captured in the fleeting moment of an eruption. The idea came about when, by chance, I discovered a striking similarity between cadences in the Ars Nova style, a French medieval musical style, compared to power chords of the modern-day Heavy Metal genre, where the use of parallel perfect fifths plays a pivotal role in its unmistakable sound.”

The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conducted by Edo de Waart, will perform Abschied by Reinbert de Leeuw on January 21st. In 1973, De Leeuw first appeared with his “symphonic Dichtung” Abschied, not only to bid farewell to German romanticism and the resulting expressionism, but also to composing in general…

The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conducted by Edo de Waart, will perform Abschied by Reinbert de Leeuw on January 21st. In 1973, De Leeuw first appeared with his “symphonic Dichtung” Abschied, not only to bid farewell to German romanticism and the resulting expressionism, but also to composing in general. Luckily, however, he came back to it. Now, the work returns to where it belongs: the concert stage. During this program, Abschied will be surrounded by the sighing expressionism of Franz Schreker and the carefree romanticism of Tchaikovsky, thus De Leeuw’s piece hinges between very different styles and periods.

The Nationale Opera & Ballet will hold its third annual Kinderkorenfestival on January 29th. This day offers an introduction to the art of opera through workshop games, movement, and theater, and the participants also get a look behind the scenes. During the Grand Finale, the children’s choirs will come together on stage with a new work, Plastic Soep, commissioned by the education department of the Nationale Opera & Ballet…

The Nationale Opera & Ballet will hold its third annual Kinderkorenfestival on January 29th. This day offers an introduction to the art of opera through workshop games, movement, and theater, and the participants also get a look behind the scenes. During the Grand Finale, the children’s choirs will come together on stage with a new work, Plastic Soep, commissioned by the education department of the Nationale Opera & Ballet. This work, which is about the plastic pollution of the oceans, was composed especially for the occasion, with lyrics by Robbert-Jan Henkes and Erik Bindervoet, and music by Micha Hamel. The direction is in the hands of Marleen van der Wolde, and the musical direction is by Michiel Rozendal. Parents and interested parties are cordially invited to join in the experience with this festive finale.

Education
He studied piano and music theory at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and composition with Kees van Baaren at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Career
In 1974, Reinbert founded the Schönberg Ensemble, which got a great reputation since performing the complete chamber works of Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg.

He is a regular guest conductor in France, Germany, England, Belgium, the United States (Tanglewood Festival, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Group New York, Aspen, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; he also lectures at the Juilliard School of Music in New York), Japan, and Australia, where he served as artistic advisor for the contemporary music series of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to 2004.

Reinbert de Leeuw has been co-founder and from 2001-2010 artistic director of the Summer Academy, the international orchestra and ensemble academy of the National Youth Orchestra in The Netherlands. He was the guest artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival (Suffolk) in 1992 and of the Tanglewood Festival (USA) from 1994 to 1998.

Also, Reinbert is author of a book on Charles Ives and a book with musical essays, and he has collaborated on eight film documentary series of 20th-century composers, such as Messiaen, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Vivier, and Górecki. The series have been shown on Dutch television and won international acclaim.

Since 2004 he is a professor at the Leiden University in “performing and creative arts of the 19th, 20th and 21st century”.

Awards
Reinbert de Leeuw has received the Sikkens Award (1991), due to the way in which he uses color in non-visual expressions. A year later, he received the prestigious 3M prize (1992).

In March 1994, Reinbert was made Honorary Doctor at the University of Utrecht for his work as pianist and conductor of the Schönberg Ensemble. His recordings as a pianist have won many prizes, including the Dutch Edison, the Premio della critica discografica Italiana, the Grand Prix of the Hungarian Liszt Society and the Diapason D’Or.

For his services and importance to music and culture in The Netherlands, Reinbert has been knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion, on September 8, 2008.

Latest publications

General
Ton de Leeuw was born on November 16, 1926 in Rotterdam. He died on May 31, 1996 in Paris (France).

Education
In 1949, after some years of composition lessons with Henk Badings, he went to Paris to study with Olivier Messiaen (analysis) and Thomas de Hartmann (orchestration). His early interest for non-Western music brought him to Jaap Kunst and the ethnomusicology department at the Amsterdam University (1950-1954).

Career
From 1954 to 1959, Ton was music director at the Dutch Radio Union. From 1959 to 1986, he was engaged with the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, first as composition teacher and head of the electronic studio, later serving as managing director. Additionally, Ton de Leeuw was a scholar on 20th century music at the University of Amsterdam.

From 1958 to 1976, he gave hundreds of radio readings relating to contemporary and non-western music. In 1961, Ton de Leeuw was commissioned by the government to travel to India to study art music. From that moment, he gave many readings, concerts and workshops on the East-West relationship in music, contemporary music and his own compositions all over the world.

Many of his papers on contemporary music and the relationship of East and West in music were published in international magazines and journals. The standard work “Muziek van de twintigste eeuw” (“Music of the 20th Century”) was published in 1964 and translated in English, Swedish and German.

At the occasion of the centenary of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra De Leeuw wrote ‘Résonances’ (1985) for orchestra.

Among his later works are: ‘Les adieux’ (1988) for piano, ‘Danses sacrées’ (1990) for piano and orchestra, the opera ‘Antigone’ (1991) and at last ‘Three Shakespeare Songs’ (1994) for mezzo-soprano and ensemble.

Awards
In 1956, Ton de Leeuw was awarded the Prix Italia for ‘Job’, in 1958 the Prix des Jeunesses Musicales for ‘Strijkkwartet’ and in 1982 the Matthijs Vermeulenprijs for ‘Car nos vignes sont en fleur’.

Posthumous, he was awarded the Matthijs Vermeulenprijs 1997 for ‘Three Shakespeare songs’.

Luc Van Hove was born in Antwerp, Belgium on the third of february 1957. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in the classes of Willem Kersters (Composition), of August Verbesselt (Musical Analysis), and of Lode Backx (Piano), amongst other classes. He followed international courses of Conducting (Mozarteum Salsburg), and of Composition and Choreography (University of Guildford, England).

He won several Composition prices, amongst which the price Annie Rutzky, the price Albert De Vleeshouwer, the price of the Belgian Artistic Promotion of Sabam, and the price of Sabam for Contemporary Music in 1993.

He was professor of Composition and Musical Analysis at the Luca School of Arts, campus Lemmens in Leuven (Belgium), and is professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (AP University college).

During three year, he was selected to be professor of Composition at the famous Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Waterloo (Belgium).

Since 2001, he was selected to become a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts. He was President of the Class of the Arts in 2011.

He received commissions from and was performed by numerous Belgian Orchestras, Ensembles and Soloists, amongst which the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Orchestra (now Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra), the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Beethoven Academy, cellist Roel Dieltiens and his Ensemble Explorations, I Fiamminghi, Cultural Capital of Europe Antwerp 93, The festival November Music, the International Cultural Centre the Singel in Antwerp, and pianist Levente Kende.

He was performed by international Orchestras, Ensembles and Soloists, amongst which the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, the Brodsky Quartet, the Arditti Quartet, the Xenakis Ensemble, The Asko/Schönberg Ensemble, the Cappella Amsterdam, the Cleveland Quartet, and cellist Pieter Wispelwey.

In 2002 he was commissioned by the Royal Flemish Opera. In 2008 his opera La Strada, based on the famous film by Federico Fellini, received its first performance in the Opera house of Antwerp (Belgium).

In 2010 he was commissioned by the Opéra Royal de Wallonie to compose a complete and original Orchestration of Stradella, a youth piano-opera of César Franck, which received its first perfomance in the newly restored Opera house in Liège (Belgium).